Posted on 11/16/2015 9:55:33 AM PST by BlessedBeGod
President Obama on Monday invoked Pope Francis as a way to justify taking in thousands of refugees from war-torn Syria, despite warnings from Congress and several states that doing so runs the risk of taking in terrorists disguised as refugees.
"When Pope Francis came to visit the United States and gave a speech before Congress, he didn't just speak about Christians who were being persecuted, he didn't call on Catholic parishes just to admit those who were of the same religious faith, he said protect people who were vulnerable," Obama said in remarks to the press in Turkey.
His comments came after some have suggested that only Christian refugees should be taken in, but Obama rejected that.
"And when I hear folks say that, 'well, maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims,' when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which person who's fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that's shameful," he said.
"That's not American; it's not who we are. We don't have religious tests to our compassion," he said.
He credited his predecessor, President George W. Bush, with not instituting anti-Muslim policies in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"I was very proud after 9/11 when he was adamant and clear about the fact that this is not a war on Islam," Obama said. "On this, they should follow his example. It was the right one. It was the right impulse. It's our better impulse."
"We also have to remember that many of these refugees are the victims of terrorism," he said. "Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values. Our nations can welcome refugees who are desperately seeking safety and ensure our own security. We can and must do both."
Obama has been fighting a torrent of criticism in the days following the terrorist attack in Paris that killed 129 people. Many want him to reverse course on taking refugees, since at least one of the terrorist attackers entered France disguised as a refugee.
But Obama has rejected that, and on Monday also rejected the idea of putting U.S. ground troops back into the Middle East to fight the Islamic State.
In his lengthy address in Turkey, Obama argued that no-fly zones don't make sense because "ISIL doesn't have planes," Obama said. So-called "safe zones" for Syrians would require ground troops and could become magnets for further attacks.
"There's a whole set of questions that have to be answered there," he said about pursuing ideas floated by well-meaning critics.
However, Obama said he is willing to try new methods.
"There will be some strategies that we try that don't work and some strategies that we try that do work," Obama said, adding that he will "double down" on those.
Obama said the U.S. and 65-nation coalition combating the Islamic State are making progress. He said the group is "systematically going after their leadership," pointing to the strikes that targeted and presumably killed "Jihadi John" last week and one Saturday that most likely killed the group's leader in Libya.
But Obama acknowledged that the attacks in Paris showed that the coalition needs to do even more. He said that during the G-20 summit, nations "committed to strengthening border controls, sharing more information and stepping up our efforts to prevent the flow of foreign fighters in and out of Syria and Iraq."
Obama said that foreign fighters returning home have to be monitored more closely. But he said they are more dangerous for Europe, as far more Europeans went to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State than Americans.
The Obama administration is acutely aware that groups such as ISIL with "twisted" ideologies can potentially strike in the West. "And we have consistently worked with our European partners disrupting plots in some cases," he said. "Sadly, this one was not disrupted in time. But understand that one of the challenges we have in this situation is that if you have a handful of people who don't mind dying, they can kill a lot of people."
Because of the attacks on Paris, the U.S. announced a new agreement with the French government, he said. "We're streamlining the process by which we share intelligence and operational military information with France."
Obama said only unconventional methods will defeat the Islamic State because the Sunni terrorist group is not a nation or state.
"We play into the ISIL narrative when we act as if they're a state and we use routine military tactics that are designed to fight a state that is attacking another state," he said. "These are killers with fantasies of glory."
That brings up the question, “What does your religion say to do, Mr. President?”
“Catholic Charities, in many places, has acted as their own local capacity allows, in concert with the Obama Health and Human Services to accommodate illegal immigrants and now foreign enemies disguised and hidden among refugees to find housing, material support and J-O-B-S.”
Follow the money, as always.
Thanks, Steve.
State governors and state representatives need to be reminded of of HHS using Catholic Charities as an arm of the administration’s policies for infiltration of our nation.
Shut down HHS in states and you shut down CC functioning as conduits for the Obama “FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION” of our country.
FREEPERS, HAVE YOU CALLED YOUR STATE GOVERNORS & REPRESENTATIVES OFFICES TODAY?
No action makes us part of the problem.
The FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION of our country demands that we demonstrate RESISTANCE.
A dang phone call gets on the record, anyway, and has to make the Marxists in your state nervous, when the numbers are increasing for SHOWING RESISTANCE.
Better:
Call democrat politicians and tell them you’ve ‘been a democrat your whole life’ but if we’re attack by ANY Syrian ‘refugee’ YOU will hold them responsible and vote for Republicans the rest of your life.
That’s what dem war rooms do to our people ... they lie and say they’re Republicans. It’s time to fight back. Our lives depend on winning against horrible sellout democrats... democrats who don’t care if we die so long as they can convince themselves how superior they are based on false ‘compassion’...
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